


Worse Than Solitude

by glymr



Series: A Thousand Words [2]
Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Angst, Christmas, Gen, Twelve Days of Fic-mas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-13
Updated: 2009-12-13
Packaged: 2017-12-10 15:20:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/787519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glymr/pseuds/glymr





	Worse Than Solitude

It's the weekend. Batman stays out late, telling himself it's because weekend nights are busier in Gotham. This is only partially true. People do stay out late on the weekends, and attract proportionally more trouble. But, though he won't admit it even to himself - *especially* to himself - there's another reason as well.

He pulls into the dark and quiet batcave in the early hours of the morning, and the reason is apparent, whether he will admit it or not. Nightwing is in New York. Robin is in San Francisco. Jason is...he pushes the thought away. Best not to think about Jason.

And Batman is alone.

A small tray of food sits next to the console, carefully covered. Most nights Alfred waits up for him, but even butlers with seemingly god-like powers must sleep sometime. Bruce tugs off the cowl and runs a hand through his hair, then takes his usual seat at the computer to begin typing up the night's report.

He's not even sure what tips him off. It's not a sound, not motion, just...a sudden awareness that he's not alone in the cave. That he *hasn't* been alone, not since he got back, and he's slipping, he should have realized it sooner. Silently he rises to his feet, boots and cape not making a sound as he creeps into the depths of the cave, past room after room carved into the rock, both naturally and artificially.

Here. Whoever it is, whatever it is, it's in *here*. Batman pulls the cowl over his face again and pushes open the door.

His heart almost stops.

Jason looks up at him, a red album cradled in his hands.

"Jason," he croaks, his voice unrecognizable even to himself.

"Hey, Batman," says Jason. Just as though their last encounter hadn't ended with both of them nearly getting blown to atoms.

"You're...here."

Jason snorts and Batman recognizes the inanity for what it is, yet he can think of nothing else to say. "Here I am," Jason confirms. "Like a bad penny, right?" His smirk becomes grimmer and he holds up the album. "Where did you get these?" he says accusingly.

Batman blinks at the album for a moment. "Robin...Robin took them."

"Bull _shit,_ " growls Jason. "*I'm* Robin, and I sure as hell didn't take *these*."

Batman shakes his head as though to clear it. "Tim took them. He followed you...he followed *us* for years."

Jason looks down at the page, at his younger self grinning and flying. "And you *let* him?"

"I didn't know about him."

"Oh, fucking come _on_ , *Bruce*."

"I didn't."

"Bullshit," says Jason again. "You knew about him and you *let* him. He was your *back-up* plan, wasn't he? No way...no WAY you'd let anyone get this close to you...to *us*...unless you had a _reason_."

Batman closes his eyes. "No," he says. "I _didn't_ know, Jason. Not until...not until he came to me. He was afraid for me. Afraid that I was *trying* to die, that I was getting too violent, too _reckless_ after your death...and he was right."

"You are so full of _shit!_ " Jason yells. He throws the album to the ground. Batman makes an abortive movement forward as thought to stop him, then pulls back, still standing in the doorway.

"You were just waiting for it, weren't you? Waiting for me to fuck up enough so you could fire my ass like you fired Dick, waiting until you could bring the new kid in and *replace* me. When I died, it must have saved you a lot of *trouble*!"

"When you died it broke my heart," says Batman, his voice low.

Jason closes his eyes for a moment, then opens them and pushes his way past Bruce. " _Fuck_ you, Batman. If you really cared, you would have gotten rid of the one that killed me a long time ago."

"Jason... _please_..." he reaches for Jason, his gauntlet sliding off the leather jacket covering Jason's arms. "Don't go."

Jason just laughs, a bitter, ugly sound, and keeps walking towards the auxiliary entrance in the depths. That was how he'd come in, Batman realizes. He hadn't been in the main cave, hadn't even seen his own memorial. " _Jason_..." he cries, his voice echoing off the walls and returning to him.

He's alone again.


End file.
